Search and AI

Patients ask AI before they book: what the September 2026 numbers say

A report published on 2 September 2026 found that 69% of Saudi respondents use AI tools for health information. What that means for your clinic website and front desk.

Naqar Digital team25 September 2026 · 3 min read

On 2 September 2026, EY MENA published a digital health report based on 1,002 respondents in Saudi Arabia. The figures describe a patient who has read, asked and compared before they ever call your clinic.

What the report says

  • 69% of respondents use AI tools for health information, the highest of the 10 countries covered.
  • Around 45% said AI research influenced their decision to see a doctor.
  • 86% requested, or considered requesting, a test, treatment or prescription based on what an AI tool told them.
  • 89% trust healthcare professionals, and 89% see AI as a complement to doctors.

The picture is balanced. Patients use these tools, and the doctor still has the final word for them.

The wider context

When OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health in January 2026, it said around 230 million people asked ChatGPT health questions every week. On 23 July 2026 it made ChatGPT Health available to all adults in the US. It remains limited to the US for now.

Closer to home, Google launched AI Mode in Arabic on 8 October 2025, with a gradual rollout. Google said questions there are 2 to 3 times longer than in classic search, which means patients describe their situation in detail.

What this means for your website

AI assistants build their answers from published pages they can understand easily. A clear service page raises the chance your facility appears in the answer, and it helps the patient who lands on your site directly.

  1. Give each service its own page that answers the questions your front desk hears every day: who the service suits, how long it takes, how to prepare, and when follow-up is needed.
  2. Make each doctor's page show their name, title and specialty exactly as licensed, years of experience, and the cases they see.
  3. Keep your address, opening hours and contact number identical across your website, Google Maps profile and social accounts. Assistants compare sources.
  4. Add a short FAQ to every service page, written in the patient's words.

What this means for your front desk and doctors

When 86% say they requested or considered a test based on what they read, doctors will hear these requests more often. Prepare your team to handle them calmly:

  • The doctor listens to what the patient has read, then explains what suits their case and why.
  • The front desk keeps written answers to common questions, drawn from your own web pages, so the information matches everywhere.
  • In sensitive specialties such as fertility and mental health, the tone stays calm and private, and what the patient searched for is respected without comment.

How to check where you appear

A simple test to repeat every month:

  1. Write down 10 questions your patients actually ask, such as: where can I find a paediatrician in this district with evening hours?
  2. Put them to ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Gemini.
  3. For each question, record whether your facility appears, whether the details about it are correct, and which facility appears in your place.

Add one question to your new-patient form: did you use an AI tool before booking? After 3 months you will have your own figure and can see how close it is to the report.

In practice

Patients arrive with a first impression already formed. Clear pages and consistent details across platforms bring that impression closer to reality and make your facility part of the answer. If you would like to review your service and doctor pages from this angle, let us talk about your facility's growth.

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